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10/31_soccer

Defender Nicholas Rochowski moves the ball forward during the game against UAB at the UNM Soccer Complex on Wednesday night. The Lobos won the game 4-3.

Lobos pull out win over red-carded UAB

assistantsports@dailylobo.com
@JROppenheim

Game tied 3-all, regulation time ticking down. New Mexico midfielder Christopher Wehan attempted a game-winning shot in the closing moments of Wednesday’s game against No. 10 Alabama-Birmingham.

The shot was not good, but following the play UAB goalkeeper Raphael Ville clocked Wehan square in the chest. After a discussion by the officials, Ville received a red card ejection that set up a game-winning chance for Lobo midfielder Michael Calderon.

Calderon’s attempt was true, pushing the ball past relief goalkeeper Joe Kuzminsky and lifting UNM into sole possession of third place in the Conference USA standings.

“I felt like the defender pushed me from the initial cross. When I got up, the keeper approached me and I think he was speaking French, probably cursing at me,” Wehan said. “He came into me full force.”

Wehan said he didn’t know why the keeper approached him and that he was caught off guard.

Officially, Kuzminsky endures the keeper loss despite playing only seven minutes. Earlier in the game, Ville surrendered goals to UNM’s Ben McKendry, Riley McGovern and Niko Hansen. Ville must miss his next game as a result of the red card, which coincides with UAB’s senior day.

The bizarre deciding goal culminated a wild back-and-forth match where UAB jumped to an early 2-0 lead. In three separate instances, goals came within eight minutes of each other or sooner. Freddy Ruiz, C-USA’s goal leader, increased his season total to 11 scores while Alex Clay posted two goals.

UAB (11-2-1, 4-2-1 C-USA) scored its three goals despite taking four shots all game. UNM (9-4-2, 5-1-1) attempted 19 shots, including 12 on goal.

“We had most of the possession, actually, the whole game,” McGovern said. “We gave up some soft goals, but the name of that game was defense. Coming back down from 2-0, that’s huge, builds a lot of confidence.”

The teams battled to a first-half tie despite UNM taking more opportunities. The Lobos outshot UAB by a 10-3 margin, and Ville stopped five of UNM’s seven shots-on-goal. UNM goalkeeper Michael Lisch made only one save on three Blazer shots-on-goal.

UAB struck first with Clay’s goal and Ruiz’s goal coming within two minutes of each other. Both were unassisted. McGovern and Hansen had the assists on each other’s goal later in the first half, and those goals occurred in a minute’s time.

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UNM, playing in its highest scoring half since the Aug. 30 season opener against Villanova, also attempted five corner kicks, UAB tried none.

In the second half, UNM grabbed its first lead of the night with 11 minutes left on McKendry’s score from defender Matthew Gibbons. UAB forced one more tie roughly nine minutes later, Clay’s second coming from Karl Chester.

The red card play and Calderon’s PK took place moments later.
“What can you say? 4-3. I thought we played really well,” UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein said. “It was pretty amazing, and we were just all over them.”

Wednesday’s win sets up another interesting situation for this weekend. The Lobos play their final road game of the season at Old Dominion, the current C-USA standing leader. A win over the Monarchs (9-3-1, 6-1-0 C-USA) would move UNM into first place with one game left on the schedule.

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